“In the last month of the regular season, Popovich baby should put himself on the lineup (rotten).”
This is a Twitter content written by the American media Forbes reporter Shan Young. When he knocked down this sentence, the battle of the quasi-champion in 2023 just lasted 2 minutes.
There are not a few journalists who have the same view as Shane Young. They think it is worthwhile to throw a season for two superstars. It is not to blame that the American journalist encouraged the team to mess up. It was really a wonderful match between Victor Wanyama and Scott Henderson. From the very beginning of the match, the two brought this peak duel to a climax, which made the fans enjoy themselves and made the team who had the chance to get the first prize in 2023 drool, let the team who originally wanted to rush for the tickets for the additional match struggle whether to simply swoop down and mess up.
It is hard to imagine that the popularity of a non-NBA game will be so high that the protagonists of the warring parties still have not entered the NBA.
According to several American media reports, in yesterday’s training, senior executives of Thunder, Pelican and other teams went to the scene to watch the training. Today, 30 NBA teams sent senior executives to spectators, more than 120 scouts applied for admission cards (ESPN reported 120-150 people, and Associated Press reported about 200 people). In order to report the match, even Brazilian and Canadian journalists flew to Las Vegas. Chris Paul, Devon Booker, Ariza, cosins and other NBA stars watched the game.
In the Twitter hot search list, the relevant entries of this competition quickly rushed into the top five, and even Zion Williamson who came back today was robbed of the limelight.
The competition process proves that this competition is completely worthy of the high expectations. Wen Banya Ma made 11 of the 20 shots, among which he made 7 of the 11 three-point shots and scored 37 points, 4 rebounds and 5 cap of the 8 penalty shots. Henderson made 11 of the 21 shots, among which he made 2 of 3 shots, and scored 28 points, 5 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals in 6 penalty and 4 penalty. In the end, the Paris Metropolitan 92 team from afar lost to the ignition team 115-122.
Both new stars show their own characteristics. Wen Banya Ma, who came to the United States for the first time, deserves to be a new generation of “unicorn”. As a giant with a height of 2 meters and 24 meters, he has guard-like skills and silky shooting feel, he can complete the breakthrough in the previous round and return to the defensive end to send out the cover in the next round. In downtown, he could even finish the fengshui ball emergency stop and strong vote after the three threats, which made the defenders feel desperate.
The height is 1.90 meters (Henderson’s real height is still a mystery, there are 1.88 meters, there are also 1.93 meters, G League official website data is 1.90 meters) henderson showed his speed and explosive power. As described in the Scout Report, Henderson has excellent ability to break through with the ball. He can simply use speed to eat his opponent without using cover, he wore flowers and walked around fengshui ball and avoided wenbanyama. Reverse lay-up was very representative. In addition, Henderson has developed a strong shot with the ball. He has the potential to become a high-quality shooter, and the three-point retreat with the long arm of Wen banyama is very wonderful. After some experience, his organizational ability is also refined.
In fact, this enemy of a lifetime had a chance to be a teammate and form a pair of super inner and outer line partners.
Wen banama was born in France. His parents’ height is not exaggerated. His father used to be the jumpers and his height was 1.96 meters. His mother once played basketball and was 1.88 meters tall. Wen Banya Ma was trained by his mother from childhood. When he was 13 years old, he met the famous agent Ndiaye (the agent of players such as Gobel and Batum). With the increase of exposure rate, Wen Banya Ma became more famous.
Wen Banya Ma really became famous in the U19 World Cup in 2021, when he led France to win the silver medal. Facing the United States led by Holmgren, Wen banyama scored 22 points, 8 rebounds and an amazing 8 blocks, while Holmgren only got 10 points, 5 assists and 2 rebounds. Wen Banya Ma had the advantage, but unfortunately the overall depth of France was not enough, and finally he lost 81-83.
When Wen banyama stepped onto the stage of the French Professional League through the youth training system early, Henderson, who grew up in the American basketball system, was still in high school. When he was in senior three, he scored 32 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, leading the team to the state finals.
In the summer of 2021, Wen Banya Ma and Henderson both faced choices. They all wanted to show themselves on a higher stage and bring themselves closer to achieving the goal of entering NBA. Wen banyama chose to sign with aswell, the Spurs overnight Parker team, while Henderson chose to finish high school one year ahead of schedule. He signed with NBA G League team to ignite the team, he became the first senior three student to join the lighting team since its establishment. All the senior high school students who joined before him finished senior four.
Last season, Wen banama suffered from injuries in asville. He scored 9.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.8 caps in the French league for 18.5 minutes, in the Champions League, they all scored 6.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.9 caps.
Henderson didn’t get much chance in the first year of igniting the team. Because of the age rule, although he joined the igniting team in 2021, he was not qualified to participate in the 2022 draft, therefore, the lighting team will definitely give priority to the new stars participating in the 2022 draft. Last season, Henderson played 11 games in the Showcase stage of the Development League, averaging 14 points and 3.6 assists, with a three-point hit rate of only 17.4%.
During the off-season in 2022, Wen banyama decided to leave asville. He received an invitation from the lighting team. In addition, there are also invitations from teams in Australia’s NBL league, and Real Madrid and Barcelona, two Spanish giants, have also opened contracts. However, Wen banyama chose the Paris Metropolitan 92 team, on the grounds that “you can often go home near home”.
In this way, Wen Banya Ma and Henderson missed the chance to become teammates. Both of them were working towards the top show in 2023, but they took different paths.
At present, in most of the authoritative simulated draft lists, Wen Banya Ma is still pushing Henderson to rank the top position for the time being. Wen Banya Ma also said in the interview: “If I was not born, then the number one must be Henderson’s.” However, Henderson did not intend to admit defeat in the fierce talk with each other. He said: “I think I am the best player.”
Today, the two top scorers in 2023 finished their first fight. It is hard to say who is the winner and who is the loser. This competition cannot have a decisive impact on the result of next year’s draft. Wen Banya Ma’s data and upper limit seem to be higher, and scouts and insiders also have very high comments on him, but he only played 33 games in 79 games last season, the hidden danger of injury always exists. In NBA history, few players as tall as him can maintain high attendance.
There are many people in the industry who are optimistic about Henderson. A general manager of NBA team said that Henderson is more insured because he is a scoring guard that meets the requirements of the times.
Who is more worthy of the top show? This debate will continue in the next eight months. The competition has just begun, and who will win the prize is unknown.